TORONTO — The news out of Canada’s real estate market isn’t good, but the country will avoid a U.S.-style real estate meltdown, CIBC said Tuesday.

Economist Benjamin Tal said in a report that even recently released data about high levels of Canadian consumer debt aren’t proof that there were be a sudden, big drop in home prices.

“To be sure, house prices in Canada will probably fall in the coming year or two, but any comparison to the American market of 2006 reflects deep misunderstanding of the credit landscapes of the pre-crash environment in the U.S. and today’s Canadian market,” he wrote.

Tal noted that Canada’s debt-to-income ratio has just broken the U.S. record set in 2006, but said other countries have had even higher levels without a crash.

Statistics Canada, in revising how it estimates household credit market debt, earlier this month reported record household debt of 163 per cent of disposable income in the second quarter.